SC Pride Festival gives small business owners special opportunities, customers

There are several markets where small business owners can sell their goods in the Midlands – such as Columbia’s Soda City Market and West Columbia’s Meeting Street Artisan Market.

But, for business owners, organizers of the annual Famously Hot South Carolina Pride Festival present a unique opportunity.

“It’s a huge earning opportunity that they make for our community,” said Candace Sharpe, owner of Strange Times Vintage and the festival’s vendor coordinator. “It definitely helps out economically queer businesses.”

The festival has been hosted annually by the South Carolina Pride Movement since 2012 — with the exception of 2020, due to COVID. The event’s 2024 rendition, held on Oct. 19, took over Main Street with a variety of vendors selling pride-related merchandise.

Many new vendors appeared on Main Street this year, such as Shannon Hinshaw, who owns the Mad Batter Cupcakery in Lexington. Hinshaw said she enjoyed the “vibes” of pride, so she decided to sell this year.

“I feel like people are nicer,” Hinshaw said. “As someone who is (neurodivergent) and queer, it is significantly easier to be myself in this space versus other markets. It’s a joyful scene to be in.” 

Exposure to new customers and socialization are what brought Jessica Ream to the festival as a first time vendor, she said. Reams owns Jessica Ream Studio, a mixed-media art and bookbinding studio.

“Markets have definitely been a bigger driver of sales than online,” said Ream, the mother of two small children. Part of the reason she’s there “is just exposure, getting out in front of people. But the other side is definitely the socialization. And there’s so many people I have met who I’ve kind of become friends with who are other vendors.”

Rachel Hawkins is a mother of four and owner of Brushed with Profanity, a craft business out of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Hawkins said she set a goal last year to attend as many pride events as she could, and Columbia’s festival marks her 12th event this year.

“All four of my kids are queer,” she said. “The pride events have always been special – even before I vended. Pride events were always big for me. I think it’s really empowering to see people have a time and a space when they can really be who they are and it’s just been really fun to do them.”

The festival allows sellers to offer goods they might not be able to during other months of the year.

“I’ve been (an) introvert by nature,” Hawkins said. “But my favorite thing is to stand here and watch people. Especially with my (drink) coasters, because I have sets of coasters that I only put out at pride. And to see especially younger people feel really empowered by sayings and phrases they might not see everywhere.”

Allison Kimsey, owner of Lavender Bunn Crochet, said pride is the biggest event of the year for her business. As a gay woman, she said the festival is an important opportunity for queer business owners to showcase their work.

“’Pride’ is our best event of the year,” she said. “It’s our show-stopper. Every year I spend months prepping as much as possible for it. I crochet everything. It’s just me. This is my full time job.”

Kimsey said she had made a lot of animals with pride colors – especially frogs, saying jokingly, “All gay people love frogs.”

“I usually try to tailor my inventory to make it more pride-specific,” she said. 

Baker Rogers, co-owner of Queer Haven Books, said the festival had more local vendors than corporate vendors, compared to last year. 

“’Pride’ to me is just a time to be ourselves and just take over a city – like just to be ourselves and feel like (how) we should feel every day,” Rogers said. “And also, ‘pride’ to me is obviously very political. ‘Pride’ is a riot, right? And now … we get to celebrate instead of riot. The Statehouse is at the end of Main Street. We still have to be there rioting for all of our rights soon. But just to have a day to relax is very nice.”